Second Chances
by vanarian
Summary: Alex is back at Brecon Beacons, but how does he know Yassen Gregorovich? And why would a teenager know so much about Scorpia? Can he learn to trust again and find a new family in K-unit, or does the past have too strong a hold on him?


**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider**

**A/N:** _**Should I continue this, or just write an ending?**_

_**Also, for those of you reading Inevitable, it might be a while before I update. Band camp is starting and I have summer homework that I've been putting off too long. Sorry!**_

_**Please Review!**_

Cub had been back at SAS camp for a total of six days, and already he was getting on Wolf's nerves. It wasn't anything the kid had _done_, it was just the fact that he was there. After the kid had saved his career by kicking him out of the plane, Wolf wasn't continually trying to trip Cub up. Instead, he joined the rest of the unit in ignoring him. That was usually easy, though today they were going to a lecture on SCORPIA, and Wolf found his thoughts wandering back to Cub as they walked to the lecture hall. What was he doing here, anyway? A teenager, a schoolboy. He didn't belong at this camp. And he didn't look like a kid, either. He was very good at controlling himself and hiding his emotions, and yet when SCORPIA had been mentioned, Wolf could have sworn he saw a flash of something in Cub's eyes. Anger, and a little bit of fear. But that didn't make sense, either. How would Cub know SCORPIA? He pushed the thoughts aside when they arrived.

The basic briefing was simple, short and to the point about how dangerous they were and the basic set-up of their organization. They went over the board members. When they moved on to the history of SCORPIA, known agents and previous agents, Wolf saw Cub tense. When they mentioned Yassen Gregorovich, an assassin who had been recently killed, Wolf saw Cub react almost imperceptibly, and would have sworn he saw regret and bitterness in Cub's gaze, which was fixed, not on the screen, but pointedly elsewhere. Wolf was about to snap at him to pay attention, but the next words stopped him.

"Former soldier, SCORPIA assassin and trainer John Rider. Dishonorably discharged, killed…"

Wolf was no longer paying any attention to the lecture. The second the picture had come up on the screen all emotion in Cub's eyes was replaced by grief and loss before Cub hid it all behind a cold mask, his jaw set tight as they listened to the speaker.

Wolf was surprised he could read Cub so easily. Usually he showed hardly any feeling and Wolf never knew what he was thinking. Which meant something about this was really getting to him.

After the lecture, one of the men made a comment about how he couldn't believe someone could betray their country like that, like John Rider had. _What a bastard_, he said. Wolf was shocked when Cub turned around from where he walked right ahead of the man and punched him in the face. He was angrier than Wolf had ever seen, and he seemed capable of anything in that moment. Then the moment broke as he turned and ran off, leaving all the SAS men stunned, and Wolf wondering if he'd really seen tears in the corners of Cub's normally hard brown eyes. After a moment Eagle asked what everyone else was thinking. "What the hell was that?"

Wolf found the kid sitting outside the cabin, holding something in his hands. He sat down next to Cub, who didn't raise his head or acknowledge him. Showing sensitivity Eagle would have claimed he didn't have, for a kid everyone knew he didn't like, he gently reached over and took the object from Cub. There was no resistance to him tugging it out of the boy's hand. Turning it over, he saw it was a picture frame with a photo on each side. One was Cub and a man who looked a lot like him, standing together and laughing. Cub looked more carefree and happy than Wolf had ever seen him. And with a pang of guilt, Wolf realized he had never even seen Cub smile.

The other picture, across from it, had one face that stood out to Wolf immediately. The man who had been on the screen of the lecture hall only hours previous. The SCORPIA agent John Rider. Only in this picture, he did not look like a man who would throw away his career and become a cold-hearted killer. He smiled at a beautiful woman who stood with his arm around her, holding a baby. Wolf slid the photo out and looked at the back. It read: _John, Helen, and Alex_. He slid the other picture out, the one with a man who, he realized suddenly, looked a lot like John Rider, and Cub. Turning it over, he read _Ian and Alex, Hiking in the Alps._ Alex. Alex was Cub. Suddenly the kid's reaction to the lecture made terrible sense. "He was your father." Wolf said quietly. It wasn't a question and they both knew it, but Cub nodded anyway. Wolf remembered taunting the kid about having a rich daddy sending him off because he wasn't wanted, the first time Cub was here. He felt terrible. But he was surprised when Cub said softly, "He wasn't a traitor."

Cub hadn't looked up since Wolf had shown up, but at least he was acknowledging that he was there. Wolf shook his head. "I'm sorry, Cub, but you saw the same thing I did. You probably just didn't know because that's not how your mother wanted you to remember him.

Cub flinched when Wolf mentioned his mother and Wolf cursed his mistake when Cub told him, "She's dead, too."

"I'm. sorry."

Cub shrugged. "You didn't know. And I never knew her anyway. But he wasn't a traitor."

Wolf was surprised that Cub still said that. He wouldn't have thought Cub the sort of person to ignore facts that way. But then, no one would want to think their father was an assassin. The kid had kept up with them, put up with everything Wolf had put him through, put up with them ignoring him, and Wolf wondered if this was just too much. But he knew Cub was going to have to deal with it eventually.

"He was SCORPIA, Cub."

"He was a double agent. He worked for MI6."

Wolf turned all the way round to face Cub. The kid sounded so certain. But how could he know?

"They sent him in. Deep cover. He worked for SCORPIA until he knew he was going to have me. Then he wanted them to pull him out. So he could start a new life with me and mum. They staged a capture on Malta, in Mdina. It got messed up, but he got out anyway. Then an official's son was kidnapped. MI6 offered SCORPIA a trade, him for the son. It was his idea, but because he wasn't going to go back to them, they faked his death. On Albert Bridge. But SCORPIA found out he was still alive. Put a bomb on their plane. I should have been there, only I had an ear infection, and I stayed with a nanny, and they…"

Cub trailed off, and Wolf was left to stare at him in undisguised horror. How did the kid know all this? And how did he deal with it? No wonder he had punched the man who'd insulted his father.

"Alex."

Wolf's voice was deadly serious and he used Cub's real name. Cub looked at him a little apprehensively.

"Yeah?"

"How do you know Yassen Gregorovich?"

Cub froze and hesitated just a little too long before saying, "What?"

Around the side of the cabin, out of view of Wolf and Cub, Snake and Eagle sat listening. They wouldn't normally eavesdrop on conversations, but they had felt they needed an explanation for what was wrong with Cub. The explanation had shocked them. But it seemed they were still in for a few more surprises.

"You knew him, I could tell. And what's more, you weren't surprised by anything they told us about SCORPIA, not even what they got from someone on the inside just a month ago. I think you owe me an explanation."

Cub's voice suddenly turned cold and Wolf nearly shivered at the change. "Owe you? I don't owe you any sort of explanation."

"I'm part of your unit, Cub. Why didn't you at least tell us? We deserve to know?" Wolf insisted.

Cub met his gaze and said very evenly, "And when have you ever given me a reason to trust you?" Wolf looked down and didn't know what to say. He knew they hadn't exactly been nice to the kid, but he hadn't really thought about it. He now realized that Cub hadn't had a friendly word all week, was picked on by some soldiers and ignored by the rest, and couldn't even count on his unit for support because they were ignoring him, too. He didn't say another word as Cub stood up and walked inside. Just before he reached the door, Cub turned back and said in a cold voice, "And you can tell Eagle and Snake that they can come out now." Without another word, he disappeared into the hut.

The Sergeant showed up a minute later looking furious. "Where's Cub?" he demanded of Wolf. Snake and Eagle were walking over and looked at Wolf in shock when he asked the Sergeant, "Why?"

The Sergeant stared at him for a second before snapping, "I asked you a question, soldier."

Wolf met his gaze squarely. "And I asked you why."

"You know damn well why, you saw what happened earlier today. Just because he's a kid doesn't mean I'll let him get away with attacking one of my men. I don't know where he thinks he is, but if I can't bin him I can still damn well punish him. Now tell me, damn it, Wolf, WHERE IS CUB"

"There are mitigating circumstances, sir."

"To hell with mitigating circum- why are you giving me a picture, Wolf?" The Sergeant demanded angrily.

"The soldier who he punched made some comments about John Rider."

The Sergeant glared at Wolf, who didn't flinch. Then he turned his gaze to the picture. He stared down at Cub and Ian and looked up at Wolf, confused. Then he looked at the other picture and the blood drained from his face. He glanced up at Wolf to confirm it and the man nodded. "Cub said he was a double agent. For MI6. Not a traitor. And after what Bear said..."

"Where's Cub?" The sergeant asked in a much softer tone of voice. Wolf nodded toward the hut. "Inside." The sergeant walked past Wolf and hesitated a moment before walking into the hut.

Eagle let out a low whistle. "I can't believe you said that to the sergeant and he didn't kill you."

Snake gave him a quelling look before sending a worried glance at K-unit's hut. "I can't believe that happened to Cub."

The sergeant pushed open the door and saw Cub sitting on his bunk with his arms pulled around his knees. When the door opened, Cub looked up but made no move to get up or come to attention. There was a dull look in his eyes that said he didn't care anymore, and the sergeant found himself walking over to sit on Snake's bunk, facing Cub.

"You assaulted a fellow soldier." The sergeant inwardly winced. He knew that was insensitive, but he wasn't good with kids and found it much easier to just get to the point.

"I'm not a soldier." Cub's voice was pitched so low the sergeant could barely make his words out. The sergeant nodded. Cub was not a soldier. He was also avoiding the issue. Before the sergeant could figure out how to get to the point, Cub spoke again.

"How much did Wolf tell you?"

"Tell me about what?"

He didn't appreciate the almost amused expression on Cub's face. "I assaulted one of your men. I punched him in the face. Five minutes ago you were outside screaming bloody murder at Wolf trying to find me and now you're trying-" He grit his teeth as he could practically hear the smirk in Cub's voice as he stressed the word trying, "-to be sensitive. So how much did he tell you?"

The sergeant debated whether to say but figured he'd better be honest with the kid. "You left these." He held out the pictures. "And he told me Rider was a double agent."

Cub nodded and took the pictures without glancing down at them. The silence stretched on for another minute before he said, "So…"

The sergeant looked at him in confusion. The teen looked impatient, and he didn't know what for.

"What is it, Cub?"

This time he knew he would normally have heard a smirk in Cub's voice. It was instead flat and uncaring, though slightly less so than a minute earlier. "As _fun_ as this has been" the sarcasm was really layered on thick, "I don't think you came in here just to give me back my pictures and tell me that I assaulted a soldier. Because I would have gotten them back anyway, and I already knew that."

The sergeant stared at the teen as if he'd never seen him before. "Cub, are you asking me to punish you?"

"No, sir, I'm taking it for granted that you're going to punish me and I'm asking you to get on with it."

The sergeant didn't know what to say. Worse, he didn't know what to do. He didn't blame Cub for punching Bear, if the rumors about what he'd said were true, but he had to keep order and discipline in the camp. Then he realized Cub was telling him it was alright, he understood that the sergeant had to punish him.

"I'm not going to bin you. Because you had… some… justification, and because I'm not allowed to. So you're on mess hall duty for the next week or until you leave, and you will make a public apology to Bear for punching him."

Cub didn't grimace or complain, just nodded and then turned away from the sergeant and the sergeant understood that he was being dismissed.

Wait. _He_ was being dismissed? He was supposed to do the dismissing.

Wolf, Snake, and Eagle were waiting outside. To their utter shock the sergeant came out looking not upset or angry, but very, very confused. He walked straight past the three of them and headed toward his office, muttering something. Snake thought he might have caught the distinct words, _bloody teenagers_. They went into the hut and saw Cub lying on his bunk, turned away from them and facing the wall. Looking at each other, they silently asked, 'Should we ask him?' It was Snake who shook his head no. He remembered Cub saying he had no reason to trust them, and knew Cub was right. They had no right to press him for answers after ignoring him all week. They silently lay down and prepared for an early morning the next day.

While Cub was out of the hut the next morning, Eagle turned to Snake. "Why aren't we asking him just how he knew all that about SCORPIA?"

Snake's reply came out harsher than he meant it to. "Because Cub's right. We haven't given him any reason to trust us, and the only reason you want to stop ignoring him now is so you can satisfy your curiosity."

Wolf cut in. "I know you feel bad about how we treated him, I sure as hell do, but Eagle's not suggesting we ask him because of curiosity. If he's mixed up with SCORPIA, he's in a hell of a lot of trouble."

"Sorry," Snake said.

"And you're right." Wolf told him. "We don't have any right to press him for answers. But he is part of our unit, whether we like it or not, and I think it's about time we gave him a reason to think so."

"You do know it's just as likely that he doesn't want anything to do with us after how we've been acting. It's not like he'll just decide to trust us. What we put him through takes a lot to work past." Eagle said.

"I know, Eagle." Wolf said, "But we sure as hell owe it to the kid to try."

They followed him to breakfast. When they entered the mess hall, Cub was sitting alone, as usual. Right when they walked in, one of the other soldiers walked over to Cub. The rest of his unit – Snake recognized them as H unit, followed, standing around Cub. The unit included Bear. The man in front of Cub said something and the boy ignored him. Snake marveled at his self-control as the man spoke again, seemingly deliberately trying to provoke him, and Cub still didn't respond.

Suddenly, the man's hands slammed down on the table in front of Cub, jostling his tray and nearly spilling his breakfast. Cub stood and began to walk out, but the other men were standing in his way. Sensing the confrontation about to break out, Snake walked over, knowing Wolf and Eagle would follow. H unit hadn't noticed yet, and one of them reached out to shove Cub, but he moved aside. Angered, the man threw a punch. Snake was about to shout at the man, knowing that Cub could end up seriously hurt, when Cub blocked the punch, sliding into a defensive position so quickly it seemed like it was as natural as breathing.

Wolf reached the group just ahead of Snake and spoke just as the men were about to retaliate. "Problem, H unit?"

Bear and the others turned around to look at Wolf. "Just clearing a few things up." He said, before walking away.

Wolf, Snake, and Eagle took seats beside Cub. Snake couldn't help but notice that while Cub had dropped the defensive position he was still on edge around them. He was tensed up and his eyes were suspicious and wary, like he thought they were setting him up for something.

Which, Snake hated to admit, if this had been happening a few days ago they might have been. And now he knew the kid not only didn't trust them enough to talk to them, he didn't even feel safe around them. They had really screwed this one up.

"You alright, Cub?" He asked.

"Fine." Cub answered back, almost defiantly. On impulse Snake reached out toward him. But Cub flinched away. Snake pulled his hand back as if burned, and Cub swung his legs over the bench and walked out.


End file.
